COMEDY PREVIEW: Bill Cosby is happy doing what he wants

Bill Cosby does two area shows this Saturday, at3:30 p.m. the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset and 8 p.m. at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis,

By R. Scott ReedyFor The Patriot Ledger

On the telephone last week to promote his shows this Saturday at the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset and the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Bill Cosby took a deep breath and paused when asked about fellow comedy legend Robin Williams, who took his own life Aug. 11.

“Stunned, just stunned, was my first reaction when I heard the news. All that remains clear to me now about that moment is that I was sitting somewhere and there were maybe three other people around. Somebody handed me the telephone and a voice on the other end said, ‘Robin Williams died.’ I said, ‘What?’ and the voice just repeated, ‘Robin Williams died.’ What hit me was this strange sense of being completely and utterly stunned. I immediately had someone check to see if the news could possibly be a hoax. When I realized it was not, there was no more confusion, just deep sadness.”

Cosby had appeared alongside Williams in director Francis Ford Coppola’s 1996 feature film “Jack,” and admired Williams both as an actor and as a stand-up comedian.

“In films and television, he was right there, step by step, with people like Peter Sellers and Sir Alec Guinness. And on stage, he was turbulent. Always going, going, going, and never letting his audience rest even for a moment. He was always finely tuned, too, like the pistons of a transatlantic ocean liner or a NASCAR winner,” said Cosby, whose own iconic status was cemented by the seven Grammy Awards he won for a series of comedy albums, and his pioneering television roles in “I Spy” and “The Cosby Show.” The latter show further burnished his legend and earned him three Emmy Awards.

Cosby, who has been married to wife Camille for 50 years and has five children, will return to television next year in an NBC series in which he plays the patriarch of a multi-generational family.

Before our discussion returned to his career, Cosby wanted to make one more statement in connection with Williams’ death.

“Let’s talk about depression. The way Robin’s wife, Susan Schneider, has handled everything since his passing has been absolutely classy, and I have enormous respect for that. I hope she won’t be angry with me for discussing depression in this way, but the side effects of some medications can create suicidal tendencies in some people. I really wish that all the psychologists and behaviorists who study depression would come together with the pharmaceutical industry to have a prescription approved that would be without dangerous side effects. But I’m also very uncomfortable with the idea that we can’t find the time and patience to work with people who are struggling with depression in a more humanitarian way so that we do more than just medicate them.”

Cosby, who attended Temple University and earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and who has also received more than a dozen honorary degrees, has never shied away from expressing his opinions. He has also never stepped away from the stand-up spotlight that he first grabbed with breakout appearances at the famed San Francisco nightclub the hungry i more than 50 years ago. His first television comedy special in 30 years, “Far from Finished,” aired last year on Comedy Central, and his next will premiere on Netflix in November.

“I’m on the Internet. I’m on things now with funny names. It’s like, ‘Go to your tablet, Moses, and watch Netflix,’” said the best-selling author (“Fatherhood,” “I Didn’t Ask to Be Born, but I’m Glad I Was”) whose upcoming special brings him back to the City by the Bay. “We taped at the SFJazz Center, because San Francisco was the city that put me on the map.

“I drove there from Philadelphia in 1962 on Route 66 in a red Mercedes SL two-seater, and right away I met a gentleman named Enrico Banducci, who owned the hungry i. He was a Damon Runyon type and a real power force. The new special is a tribute to the hungry i, which was an amazing 200-seat venue that you were lucky to play, to Banducci, and to San Francisco. I’ve always loved that city, because of the great weather and because the people are loose but always well-mannered.”

Taped on his 77th birthday last month, “Bill Cosby 77” will feature observations on relationships, marriage and parenting, and it is being edited by someone who has shared all three with the comic.

“My wife is my editor. Trust is what it is called, but it is really fear. It all goes to that one fundamental truth about marriage: the wife is in charge.”

On the road these days, however, it’s Mr. Cosby who takes charge.

“I do what I want to do. I have a single-engine turboprop Pilatus with two pilots and a bed on the back of the plane, where I sleep when there is no hotel I want to stay in. I’ll be in Ontario the night before the Music Circus and the Melody Tent. We’ll fly through Buffalo and clear customs there, so maybe we’ll stop for Buffalo wings and pizza. I always make sure the pilots get a nice meal, because that keeps them happy.”

The boss is happy, too, to be returning to two familiar venues.

“Theater-in-the-round means there is not one bad seat in the house. I won’t have the stage revolve, though, because I don’t want to be spinning around. Instead, I learned years ago how to talk and move so I wouldn’t having hecklers saying they couldn’t see me. Working in the round is great, because the sound of laughter and applause are 360 degrees and you can see the smiles all around you.”